TWO men who saved the life of a suicidal man who jumped from a bridge on the A14 at Newmarket are set to be given a national award.

Darren Jenkins and Pc Ian Watson have been given national life-saving honours from the Royal Humane Society after they caught a man who tried to jump from a bridge over the A14.

Mr Jenkins found the 41-year-old Newmarket man who had climbed over the bridge’s safety barrier and positioned himself to jump at about 10pm on December 13 last year.

Pc Watson explained the incident. He said: “This incident happened on my beat and I was about 20 seconds away. I didn’t know Darren was there when I arrived, I just knew there was a man who had climbed over the railings on the A142 bridge over the A14. We would have been faced with at least a single fatality if he had fallen and we were above three lane traffic on the A14.”

Mr Jenkins was already holding the man’s left arm, while Pc Watson took hold of his right as Mr Jenkins continued to talk to him.

It was then that without warning, the man stepped off and was left hanging in the air with Mr Jenkins and Pc Watson holding him up.

Pc Watson added: “It went from just holding him to stopping him falling. My only thoughts were, “I have hold of him and I’m not going to let go, we have got to get him back over”. Somehow, we managed to haul him back over the railings and onto the pavement.”

When police arrived, the man was taken to hospital.

Both are set to receive Royal Humane Society testimonials after being nominated by Insp Matthew Rose.

Dick Wilkinson, secretary of the Royal Humane Society, said: “If they had not been there to stop the man, quite apart from the possibility of death or serious injury to himself he could also have caused a serious pile up on the road below.”

Insp Rose added: “This member of the public has gone out of his way when he has seen someone in distress and potentially put himself in danger to save this person’s life.

“Pc Jenkins has also gone above and beyond what we would expect of a police officer to save this young man’s life and this is worthy of a nomination for this prestigious award.

“We often patrol bridges as people do stand on bridges or throw things from bridges and we would urge anyone who sees anything to call 999.”